Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Snippets #15: April 26, 1984

This is from an April 26, 1984 letter to Amy Blumenthal (of United Press International):

"Dear Ms. Blumenthal,

Thank you for your call in response to our press release concerning our new comic book, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". We appreciate your interest, and would be happy to discuss the book further with you or another representative of UPI. Our schedules are fairly flexible, and I am usually at home in case you would like to call during the day. (Kevin Eastman and I run Mirage Studios out of our home in Dover.)

I am enclosing a copy of the comic book, along with some more information about Mirage Studios and the other "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" products that we are marketing. (At present, we are only selling t-shirt transfers in addition to the book itself, but we hope to do a poster in the near future.)

Hopefully, my next statement will not seem egotistical, but… I think that there is an interesting story to be written here, not just about our comic book, but also concerning the great diversification and expansion that has transformed the comics industry in the last few years.

Thank you again for your interest, and we hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Peter A. Laird"

[As diehard Turtle fans know, this UPI connection resulted in a windfall of free publicity for the TMNT comic, as this story went all over the country, and possibly around the world. We literally could not have paid for that much press. Thirty years later, I still feel grateful to Ms. Blumenthal for her interest and efforts. -- PL]